Today, 17th of March 2016, the Nigerian Chief of Army Staff
and Borno State born Lt.-Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai, openly confessed and
admitted that soldiers of the Nigerian Army opened fire and killed defenceless
Biafrans who were conducting prayer sessions inside the football field of Ngwa
High Schoool, Aba in Abia state in Biafraland. This genocidal action of the
Nigerian Army happened on February 9, 2016. According to Nigeria’s Punch
Newspaper, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai argued that his “soldiers could not have
opened fire on the activists without provocation.” The Army Chief further
stated that “We have our rules of engagement, the troops cannot just open
fire.”
While dismissing the constitutionally-backed respect for
human right and sanctity of human lives as guaranteed in section-33 of
Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, Lt.-Gen. Buratai boasted that “in situations that
entail the use of fire, the protection of human rights does not apply.” In his
display of crass ignorance of the Constitution and the Laws of Nigeria, the
Army Chief surmised that “the 1999 Constitution, and the Armed Forces Act, all
provided for the use of force when necessary.” But we could not locate in any
of the 320 sections and seven schedules of the 1999 Constitution, which section
that supported the dastardly acts of his soldiers. Neither did we find in any
of the 292 sections and four schedules of the Armed Forces Act, CAP – A20 LFN
2004, where it stipulated the shooting of unarmed peaceful civilians in
peacetime within the Federation of Nigeria. In addition, the civilized world
will be interested to know what the Nigerian Army’s Rules of Engagement (ROE)
are when confronted with Christians praying in a secluded ground.
In his conclusion, Lt.-Gen. Buratai assured that “we are
already investigating it. When such incidents involve the loss of lives we
usually conduct an investigation – that is our procedure.” From every word in
the confessions of Lt.-Gen. Buratai, it is now indisputable that unarmed
Biafrans were mowed down by the Nigerian soldiers. The Indigenous People of
Biafra do hereby demand the convocation of an impartial investigative team and
NOT the group hurriedly set up by the Army Chief considering that the Army is
the aggressor in this case.
We further assert that the only credible entity which can
carry out in-depth investigation is the International Criminal Court (ICC) in
The Hague. The so-called investigating team arranged by the Chief of Army Staff
is foundationally riddled with conflict of interest and lacks the moral compass
to conduct quality investigation in a case of this magnitude. Therefore, the
United Nations Human Rights Commission and other allied organizations should
intervene and work with the ICC to conduct a thorough investigation now that
the Nigerian Army through Lt.-Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai have confessed that they
actually shot and killed unarmed Biafrans at Aba on the 9th of February 2016.
Signed
Barrister Emma Nmezu
Dr.
Clifford Chukwuemeka Iroanya
Spokesperson for IPOB
Spokesperson
for IPOB
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